V-Dem offers a number of indicators measuring different forms of clientelism and corruption within various sectors; a few of them displayed in the graph below. Turkmenistan was ranked as one of the world’s top ten most corrupt countries in the Corruption Perception Index, provided by Transparency International in 2014. As lower scores indicate more corruption, it is clear from the graph that Turkmenistan indeed is a country suffering from different forms of corruption and that no improvements seem to have taken place over the last twenty years.

Executive bribery and corrupt exchanges is particularly acute, as it approaches the minimum on the scale. It captures how routinely members of the executive (the head of state, the head of government, and cabinet ministers, or their agents, grant favors in exchange for bribes, kickbacks, or other material inducements.

The public sector corruption indicator, measuring how routinely public sector employees grant favors in exchange for bribes, kickbacks, or other material inducements, is also consistently very low onthe scale. Party linkages and judicial corruption show also show very low levels over time. The party linkages indicator measure what the most important form of linkage is between the major parties and their constituents, while the judicial indicator captures how often individuals or businesses make undocumented extra payments or bribes in order to speed up or delay the process or to obtain a favorable judicial decision.